by Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
On Saturday, June 18, CCSJ held its annual fundraising dinner. About 200 persons gathered together to support this initiative. The funds will go towards meeting the cost of implementing the Values and Virtues Formation Programme in Catholic Primary Schools and completing the Anthony Pantin Reintegration Centre.
CCSJ would like to thank all those who participated in this event to make it a success. As I looked around the room I remembered Bishop Pat Lynch’s words in his book: Awakening the Giant: Evangelism and the Catholic Church. We need to awaken the Giant of Catholicism in our nation and in our world.
The Gospel for Corpus Christi, John 6:51-58, reminds us that receiving the “living bread” in the Eucharist is essential if we are to draw life from Christ. But that is not all that is required of us Catholics. We are sent out into the world at the end of Mass to love and serve the Lord.
What better way to serve the Lord and to find yourself than “to lose yourself in the service of others” (Gandhi). We are called to be the human face of God in our world. We can serve others in a variety of ways. For example, at the end of the dinner on Saturday, a doctor approached Msgr Jason Gordon expressing his wish to come on board and share his expertise with CCSJ.
CCSJ welcomes his support and will work with him to draw up a plan of action, as we did with Dr Kenwyn Nicholls who continues to support us. Those who attended the recent workshop in Santa Rosa Parish Hall on “Diabetes Prevention and Management” will agree that the excellent power point presentation and “lecture” by Dr Nicholls was very informative.
Dr Nicholls says that about 143,000 persons in T&T are known Type 2 diabetics (2007 statistics). About 102,000 in T&T fall in the category of pre-diabetes. He estimates that this number is projected to reach 130,000 by the year 2025. See CCSJ’s website for his paper entitled: “The diabetes epidemic in TT: Attacking a burdensome disease with conventional weapons”. We are trying to develop a train-the-trainer pilot project to raise awareness in parishes of this important issue.
Receiving the Eucharist should help to transform us so that we, in turn, will play our part to transform the world so that it reflects Gospel values. We live in a society/world in which there are many injustices. As followers of Christ, we must come out of the shadows and speak out if we are to build God’s Kingdom on earth.
On June 16 I had an opportunity to represent CCSJ at a Civil Society Consultation for Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – organised by the Attorney General’s Ministry. Rhonda Maingot of Living Water Community, was also present. In a forum in which views expressed were made by some individuals who support abortion and who believe that there is no God, it was important that a Catholic perspective was presented.
Human rights are central to the Church’s mission in the world. Catholics should be aware of the “charter of rights” outlined in Pope John XXIII’s encyclical (1963), Peace on Earth.
“The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.”(www.ohchr.org)
There are many issues and challenges that we must address if Trinidad and Tobago is to improve its human rights records. You can read CCSJ’s written submission on our website. If we are to improve our human rights situation, the issues outlined in our submission must be among those that are addressed. Our paper ends as follows:
“Catholics believe that the measure of any society is whether what we do threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person. Let us continue to examine our policies, procedures, legislation and practices to determine what we must do to promote integral human development.
“Our vision for society must be an inclusive one. CCSJ and the rest of the Catholic Church stand willing and able to support initiatives that will promote the human rights of our people and build a nation in which truth, justice, love, peace and freedom become a reality.”
